Using off grid solar power has gotten a lot easier now, with recent improvements in technology and an increased concern about the environment.

Once limited to people who lived in remote places where electricity was either expensive, inconvenient, or impossible, off grid homes are now moving closer to civilization. Taking your home off the municipal power grid is less expensive and easier than it has ever been, and solar power is the most common way to do it.

In a setup like this, you will need:

 

• solar panels
• a regulator
• batteries

 

An inverter allows you to use AC power instead of DC, and most systems have computerized control centers to make it easy to monitor what’s going on in your system. Whether or not your home is right for off grid solar power will depend on your location and how your home is situated.

It is important to be able to get enough hours of sunlight per day to charge your batteries with all the power you need.  In southern latitudes with mostly clear weather, this can be pretty easy. However, farther north, or where there is often a lot of cloud cover, this can be trickier.

Before you start installing an off grid solar system you should evaluate if your home receives enough sunlight to merit one. If not, you may wish to look at other sources of green power, such as wind.

There’s a limit to how much power can currently be produced from the sun. Solar panels are costly and you need plenty of space.  This means that most people in off grid situations need to carefully monitor their usage to make sure that they are not overtaxing the system. When you’re off the grid and you’re out of power, you’re really out of power, after all.

However, most people are able to reduce their power requirements to the point where they can meet their energy production and they always have plenty of stored energy for their daily routines.

Off grid solar power is a great choice if you want to be more self reliant, are concerned about the sustainability of your power generation, or if you just want to be able to control things a little more.

It will save you money in the long run, though initial setup can be costly. You won’t have to worry about rate hikes or inconsistent service.  It’s all in your hands.  In return, you must learn to take care of your system and adjust your life accordingly.  For many people, it’s worth it.

Steven C. Jones writes about renewable energy and living off the grid. Check out his blog about off grid solar homes and wind power for your home.

The state and federal government bodies are recently beginning to concede to public pressure to provide funding for development of renewable energy sources, and the prospect of using wind energy conversion technology to provide electricity and heating sources on a residential level is becoming closer to reality. While the wind itself is obviously free, the current cost to convert the energy produced by the wind to usable energy on the existing utility grid is prohibitive.

While the total capacity of wind farm energy production worldwide is 100,000 megawatts, the United States is leading in advancement and implementation of this technology and currently supplies over 18,300 megawatts of energy from it’s various small scale windfarms, including the Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center of Texas which is home to the world’s largest wind farm. The level of energy output produced from U.S. windfarms is currently adequate to service 5 million households with electricity. The American Wind Energy Association was formed in 1974 as the national trade association for the wind energy industry in the U.S., and is the leading body in providing wind energy research in an advisory capacity to the industry.

Among the distinct advantages of wind energy is that it’s conversion to usable electricity requires no chemical processes and therefore there are no bi-products are environmentally contaminating pollutants.

While there must be adequate and continual wind speeds to assure consistent energy output of turbine fields, obviously, wind is an unending source of energy. The equipment required, though, must take into consideration that consistent wind speeds are at elevated levels, therefore wind turbines must be very tall and require specialized equipment for their construction. Conversely, the extreme height required for adequate wind turbine generation makes it ideal for use in farmlands, where grazing animals, or crops can be planted around the turbine supports. Many wind farms are superimposed over existing farmland that supplies crop bi-products to the alternative liquid fuel industry. In addition, windfarms can be built off shore, therefore reducing even more of the landscape environmental impact.

As we consider the environmental impact of our energy choices and methods to convert and distribute forms of “clean” energy, it must also be understood that solar energy has an advantage over wind energy in that the wind turbines produce a considerable amount of noise. Also noted is the impact the wind turbine fields have on certain people who react negatively to the pulsation in the air waves created by the turbines and the visual impact to natural landscape with the implementation of wind turbine farms.

As solar and wind energy seem to be running neck in neck for the position of most widely used source of renewable alternative energy, it seems that the federal government is bracing to lend it’s support to the advancement of mass wind turbine farms. The economic impact of this development could mean renewed financial stature to many of the citizens of the United States as fabrication, construction and maintenance of the turbine fields will require a new industry of workers to support it.

A relatively new concept in alternative and renewable energy production is the use of wave farm technology, that is, harnessing the energy produced by oceanic waves and converting it to electricity. Currently, the United States has no commercial wave farms, but the largest national utility and many additional public utility companies are actively investing in wave energy technology, and recently enacted California state laws requiring public utility companies to acquire 20 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by the year 2010 will assure that this trend to developing more responsible sources of energy will continue.

Wave energy, known as hydroelectric power, is a truly renewable form of energy in that the water used in the production of the electricity can be reused. While the dams required for containment of the oceanic flows are very expensive and require cooperation between large corporations, research facilities and governmental entities to finance and build, as long as there is a sufficiently powerful water supply available, electricity can be continuously generated. Unlike solar energy, which is contingent on the number of sunny days available in a year, the absence of air pollution to interfere with the solar cell collectors, and the negative impact of no energy collection after sunset, wave energy is not affected by any other environmental factor, therefore is a 24/7 operation, continuously.

Hydroelectric power is the most widely used form of renewable energy and over 50 percent of the total hydroelectric power produced in the United States is from power plant locations in California, Oregon and Washington. These coastal states have advanced the technology used to dam the reservoirs of water at different levels to be able to control the output of energy in relation to current demands.

Water has been used, worldwide, as a source of energy since the times of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Use of water to harness energy spans over thousands of years in various forms from ancient aquaducts to waterwheels used to produce water driven electricity to power various manufacturing plants in North America in the 1950’s.

One potential negative impact of hydroelectric power technology is in the direct relation to aquatic habitat. Considerations must be made in effort to prevent disruption of spawning patterns and natural chemical flows for the reproductive efforts of aquatic life. In most cases, problems arising from introduction of new devices to an established waterway are seldom able to be foreseen, and must be addressed once the dilemma has presented itself. As more dams and water energy producing systems are introduced, producers and installers will have the benefit of prior installation issues to aid in preventing future problems.

As research and development continues to progress regarding the use of wave energy technology the U.S. will find itself poised to be the frontrunning source worldwide in the distribution of harnessed water energy. As the U.S. terrirtories are large in geography, and contain many oceanic borders, including Hawaii and the Virgin Islands, the potential for becoming a worldwide supplier of a natural energy source which produces no pollutants or chemical bi-products is a lucrative position to be in.

As the world finally comes to terms with the fact that the use of oil based and fossil fuels as a primary source of energy is not infinite, the real hope for economic prosperity and energy independence in the United States is in the research and development of alternative fuel sources. There has also been much talk in the recent twelve months regarding the need to develop methods of harnessing and distributing “clean” alternative energy sources which will not negatively impact the environment by depleting natural energy sources or causing air or water pollution in the processing of fuels for energy.

Not only has the search for renewable fuel sources become a matter for global resource responsibility, but also a matter of national security and fiscal responsibility to the citizens of the U.S. to relieve them from being hostage to hostile foreign entities who controls the primary means of energy resources for our country. Alternative energy sources must be developed within the U.S. to secure it’s independence from foreign energy sources.

Solar and wind energy are the first alternatives that come to mind when considering other possibilities for producing energy, as these sources are unending in their availability and are free. Unfortunately, the harnessing of these energy sources and the conversion to usable energy for providing electricity and automotive fuels is currently still cost prohibitive. As the state and federal government bodies begin to recognize and concede large scale funding to the opportunities for energy independence through these forms of renewable energy, the cost of the products, power conversion, and installation will dramatically drop. Unfortunately, the fear is that the gas and electricity companies will, by then, have contrived a way to harness the dispersing of the converted energy, resulting in little cost savings to the consumer, although still relieving the rampant use of fossil fuels and pollution output affecting the global ecology.

As it stands today, the residential consumer can contract with a solar energy company to have a solar panel system installed on there home which will, in effect, convert the home to a “hybrid” which remains on the electric company’s energy grid, but allows the home to exclusively use its collected solar energy for electricity and heating when the conditions are favorable at no cost. In fact, electric companies in most areas are converting their billing systems to provide credits to the homeowner when enough solar energy is collected to supercede the current energy needs of the home. Therefore, you do not pay for electric service when your solar panels are doing their job, when it’s a cloudy day, you will pay for electricity you use from the electrics company’s power grid – BUT – if your solar panels have collected and converted more energy than you need, this energy is transferred back to the overall electric grid and the electric company will post a credit to your electric bill. You are, in effect, storing your unused solar energy with the electric company for future use, at no cost. Good deal !
Most solar panel fabricators and installers will also attest that you can eventually end up making money off of the electric company if your panels produce enough excess energy to greatly supercede your use. Since you are collecting the energy, and the electric company is providing the excess to its other customers by means of its electrical grid, the electric company will then pay you for the energy it is providing.